A forklift (also known as a lift truck, fork truck, or forklift truck) is an industrial vehicle used to transport materials short distances. Generally, a forklift comprises a frame atop four wheels, an area for a human-operator, and two “forks” or long thin blades attached to a carriage for contact with the payload. The operator can control the forks through hydraulic controls that move the forks up and down. During basic operations, the forklift operator approaches a payload head-on (with the forks aimed at the payload) and in the lowered position, drives the forks into the payload through specified openings, and raises the forks, lifting the payload. The operator then drives the payload to the specified drop location and lowers the forks, setting the payload down onto the surface of the specified drop location. Once the payload is in place, the operator reverses the forklift, removing the forks from the specified openings in the payload and leaving the payload in place. Forklifts are rated for certain load capacities (generally between one and five tons) and are limited by the need to maintain the center of gravity of the forklift while raising, lowering, and transporting a payload.
Many retailers utilize forklifts in order to deliver merchandise stored in pallets or in crates or stored as lose product (such as lumber or drywall) to a waiting customer's vehicle or vehicle trailer. Many common utility cargo trailers have side rails and a rear ramp gate. When a forklift approaches a trailer with side rails, operations are limited in two respects. First, although the forklift can lift the payload over the railing by raising the forks, when the operator lowers the forks to place the payload onto the bed of the trailer, the bottom side of the forks often comes into contact with the top of the side rails. This contact could damage the railing. Even if the frame and length of the forks allow for the forks to extend beyond the railing, once the payload is lowered onto the bed of the trailer, the forks cannot be removed from the payload openings. The forklift is unable to reverse away because the forks will be located interior to the railing. Driving the forklift up the rear ramp gate presents extreme safety hazards because of the delicate center of gravity balance between the frame of the forklift and the load on the forks. Further, rear ramps are generally not built to withstand the weight of the forklift. Therefore, this approach is not favorable. Second, often times the payload is extremely heavy and must be placed strategically in the trailer. If not carefully placed, the force created by the weight of the payload could even lift the backend of the customer's vehicle with potential damage to the vehicle's frame, trailer hitch, and to the trailer itself. Traditional forklifts generally cannot offer precise loading because the dimensions of the frame and forks limit the reach of the forklift and known methods are clumsy at best.
Traditional methods of handling these issues include using two forklifts, one to put the payload in place and another to “push” the payload off of the first forklift. This method is not only extremely time consuming, but also unacceptably dangerous to human operators. Pushing the payload using the forks also creates the risk of damaging the product. Further, other forklift attachments are limited by the extension of the forks and frame dimensions, compounded by the physical requirements dictated by the forklift's center of gravity. Many do not compensate for the desire to reverse the forklift away from the payload after placing the payload, failing to adequately address structural obstacles such as railings.
Forklifts are used in thousands of retailers to perform this type of transport with similar payloads every day. Therefore, a new product is needed to provide a safe and time efficient means to transport merchandise from the stock room to a customer's vehicle or trailer. The forklift adapter described herein provides such a novel means to transport and position payloads including pallets, crates, and loose materials onto a surface, wherein access to the surface is obstructed by another structure, such as a railing. The adapter redirects the fork insertion point so that the insertion point for the payload is perpendicular to, rather than parallel to, the frame and forks of the forklift. The adapter allows a forklift to place the payload in the desired position and then reverse away from the payload. Additionally, the payload is supported by the forks from above rather than from below the payload. Therefore, the forklift is capable of placing a load in a particular location on an obstructed surface (such as a trailer bed with railing) and reversing away, leaving the payload and adapter in place. The adapter can then be removed either by the forklift or through other physical or mechanical means.